cbaker3 Posted February 17, 2016 Report Share Posted February 17, 2016 I have a private student loan through American Education Services. As far as I knew, my loan was in a three month forbearance from Nov, Dec and Jan with my payments to resume in February. When I called last week to get my updated tax information on my student loan interest, I was informed that my loan was in DEFAULT and no longer with the AES office. I was then given about eight different numbers to call to track down who actually held my account and I still have not figured out how it went into default when it was in a 3 month forbearance. But AES won't give me any information because they said they no longer hold my account. The loan was originated through Lexington Student Loan Trust (which I cannot find a phone number to call them!) and is now held by MRS Associates out of New Jersey. Upon doing my research, it looks like MRS Associates is a shady collection agency and I do not want to do business with them if at all possible. But I can not figure out who I should pay for this loan! MRS offered me many, many settlement options but I cannot take any of them at this time. I am able to make the $120 a month payment to them just as I was to AES but nothing more. AES has already reported to my credit report as of yesterday as being delinquent 120 days but does not show as DEFAULTED, which they told me it went into default status on Feb 1st. I DO NOT NEED a $12000 collection account on my credit report! I'm trying to improve my credit, not destroy it more. What do I do? Pay the CA or try the original creditor? I do not want to agree to pay anything to the CA unless they agree not to report on my credit report. I know some places will do a pay-for-delete but I have never tried that. Any help and advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I have no problem paying what I owe (which I realize will be awhile before I can pay it off) but I do not want this to destroy my credit even more. Thank you in advance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acorn Posted February 18, 2016 Report Share Posted February 18, 2016 Do you have anything in writing regarding the forbearance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbaker3 Posted February 20, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2016 I do not. I only have the form that I faxed in. I've done this forbearance before in increments of 3 months at a time and never had issues. Since AES no longer has my account, I can't log into their site to receive any of my account information. I did receive a letter from MRS Associates in the mail this week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kangaroonicorn Posted June 14, 2016 Report Share Posted June 14, 2016 Have you had any luck? I'm in the same boat. Your loan didn't originate with Lexington Student Loan Trust I LLC. They appear to be a subsidiary of Citibank (more like a faceless phantom company) that buys bad debt from AES, probably for pennies on the dollar. They make their money by attempting to collect on the bad debt. They cannot be contacted and MRS Associates won't do anything except offer you unreasonable terms. That's all you'll ever get out of them. They've offered me a lump sum settlement of around $20,000 or payments that would equal about $40,000 over 2 years. It's ridiculous! It makes me think they're just going through the motions so that when they take me to court they can show that they offered to work with me when in reality the terms they've offered are completely unconscionable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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